Published December 31, 2005 | Version v1
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Lophuromys (Lophuromys) flavopunctatus Thomas 1888

Description

Lophuromys (Lophuromys) flavopunctatus Thomas 1888

Lophuromys (Lophuromys) flavopunctatus Thomas 1888, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1888: 14.

Type Locality: Ethiopia, Shoa (=Shewa) Province, probably obtained at Ankober, 100 mi. (161 km) NE Addis Ababa (Thomas, 1888 d), 3000 m (coordinates given by W. Verheyen et al., 2002).

Vernacular Names: Ethiopian Buff-spotted Brush-furred Rat.

Synonyms: Lophuromys (Lophuromys) giaquintoi (Toschi 1946); Lophuromys (Lophuromys) zaphiri Thomas 1906.

Distribution: Endemic to Ethiopian plateau west of the Rift Valley (Osgood, 1936; W. Verheyen et al., 2002).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Subgenus Lophuromys, L. flavopunctatus species group (W. Verheyen et al., 2002). Originally described as a species, which later came to embrace Ethiopian brunneus, simensis, and zaphiri (Osgood, 1936; G. M. Allen, 1939; Ellerman, 1941), and eventually a dozen taxa representing a geographic range with an isolated segment in highlands of Ethiopia, and a vast distribution outside of that region, extending from NE Angola through the Congo basin to Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and south to Malawi, N Zambia and N Mozambique (Dieterlen, 1976 b; Misonne, 1974; Musser and Carleton, 1993). The peculiar range and appreciable morphological variation among samples prompted Musser and Carleton (1993) to suggest that more than one species was present, which has been demonstrated by recent analyses of allozymic (Lavrenchenko et al., 2000), chromosomal (Aniskin et al., 1997), and morphological, morphometric, and molecular data (Lavrenchenko et al., 1998 b; W. Verheyen et al., 2002). What was once considered a single species is now a complex containing at least 11 species, with L. flavopunctatus being restricted to the Ethiopian plateau west of the Rift Valley (W. Verheyen et al., 2002), as Osgood (1936) had earlier defined it. Association of the two synonyms with L. flavopunctatus demonstrated by Lavrenchenko et al. (1998 b) and W. Verheyen et al. (2002). Closest relatives of L. flavopunctatus are the Ethiopian endemics L. brevicaudus and L. melanonyx; all other species in the complex are members of the L. aquilus species group (W. Verheyen et al., 2002). See account of L. brevicaudus.

Notes

Published as part of Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, pp. 1189-1531 in Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore :The Johns Hopkins University Press on page 1206, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7316535

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Additional details

Biodiversity

Scientific name authorship
Thomas
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Order
Rodentia
Family
Muridae
Genus
Lophuromys
Species
flavopunctatus
Taxon rank
species
Taxonomic concept label
Lophuromys (Lophuromys) flavopunctatus Thomas, 1888 sec. Wilson & Reeder, 2005

References

  • Thomas, O. 1888 d. On a collection of mammals obtained by Emin Pasha in equatorial Africa, and presented by him to the Natural History Museum. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1888: 3 - 17.
  • Verheyen, W., J. L. J. Hulselmans, T. Dierckx, and E. Verheyen. 2002. The Lophuromys flavopunctatus Thomas 1888 species complex: A craniometric study, with the description and genetic characterization of two new species (Rodentia-Muridae-Africa). Bulletin de L'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Biologie, 72: 141 - 182.
  • Osgood, W. H. 1936. New and imperfectly known small mammals from Africa. Field Museum of Natural History, Zoological Series, 20: 217 - 256.
  • Allen, G. M. 1939. A checklist of African mammals. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 83: 1 - 763.
  • Ellerman, J. R. 1941. The families and genera of living rodents. Vol. II. Family Muridae. British Museum (Natural History), London, 690 pp.
  • Dieterlen, F. 1976 b. Die afrikanische Muridengattung Lophuromys Peters, 1874. Vergleiche an Hand neuer Daten zur Morphologie, Okologie und Biologie. Stuttgarter Beitrage zur Naturkunde, ser. A (Biologie), 285: 1 - 96.
  • Misonne, X. 1974. Order Rodentia. Part 6. Pp. 1 - 39, in The mammals of Africa: An identification manual (J. Meester and H. W. Setzer, eds.). [issued 10 Sep 1974]. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C., not continuously paginated.
  • Musser, G. G., and M. D. Carleton. 1993. Family Muridae. Pp. 501 - 755, in: Mammal species of the world, a taxonomic and geographic reference, Second ed. (D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder, eds.). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D. C., xviii + 1206 pp.
  • Lavrenchenko, L. A., A. N. Milishnikov, and A. A. Warshavsky. 2000. Allozymic phylogeny: Evidence for coherent adaptive patterns of speciation in Ethiopian endemic rodents from an isolated montane massif. Pp. 245 - 253, in Isolated vertebrate communities in the Tropics. Proceedings of the 4 th International Symposium, Bonn (G. Rheinwald, ed.). Bonner Zoologische Monographien, 46: 400 pp.
  • Aniskin, V. M., L. A. Lavrenchenko, A. A. Varshavskii, and A. N. Milishnikov. 1997. [Karyotypic differentiation of three harsh-furred mouse species of genus Lophuromys (Murinae, Rodentia) from the Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia]. Genetika, 33 (7): 967 - 973 (in Russian, with English summary).
  • Lavrenchenko, L. A., W. N. Verheyen, and J. Hulselmans. 1998 b. Systematic and distributional notes on the Lophuromys flavopunctatus Thomas, 1888 species-complex in Ethiopia (Muridae-Rodentia). Bulletin de L'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique. Biologie, 68: 199 - 214.